Low Male Birth Weight May Affect BP

Published Online: Tuesday, November 1, 2005

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A Swedish study shows that men born
with below-average birth weight have a
slightly higher risk of developing high
blood pressure (BP) as young adults,
compared with men born within the average
weight range.

The findings support the theory that
poor fetal growth may cause metabolic
disorders, such as high BP or diabetes.
This theory is known as the "fetal programming
hypothesis," according to a
report by Niklas Bergvall, PhD, of the
Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, which
appeared in the September 2005 issue of
Epidemiology.

Although past research has linked low
birth weight (LBW) to high BP, most studies
have not taken socioeconomic and
genetic factors into account. Because
both are linked to the risk of LBW as well
as the risk of high adult BP, the relationship
could be due to these factors.

The study included adult men, nearly
90,000 of whom had at least 1 brother to
use for a comparison. Because brothers
share an average of half their genes, grow
up in the same environment, and have the
same socioeconomic status, researchers
were able to control for the effect of these
factors on the relationship between LBW
and high BP.

The researchers defined LBW as a
weight below 6 lb 3 oz for babies born at
40 weeks' gestation, and high systolic BP
as 140 mm Hg or higher. After adjusting
for genetic and socioeconomic factors,
they found that men born with LBW had a
14% greater risk of developing high BP in
young adulthood.